What Happened To Laxus
by Lucinda M. H. Cheshir
Summary: I'm sure you're all aware of the span of time where Laxus disappears without any explanation of what's going on in his turbulent mind. What really happened during those few months when Laxus was wandering around as a vagabond? Narrated mostly from an OC's pov, though that might change with time. All official Fairy Tail characters belong to Hiro Mashima. Do please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**_April, X769_**

_On rolling waves in the midst of a terrifying typhoon, a tiny floating basket covered with a top made of woven reeds bobs precariously, containing its precious cargo. It is whirled around and nearly sunk several times, until it stops short at the feet of a glowing woman, richly dressed in a deep blue kimono, who is herself floating just above the waves caused by the tempest. The mysterious woman looks at the basket, picks it up, and smiles when she discovers the baby sleeping within._

_"My young castaway," she murmurs soothingly to the infant, "You are now a child of the Water."_


	2. Chapter 2

**_November 18, X784_**

_"My child... I leave everything for you to bear on your own shoulders one day. Carry the burden well."_

Mizuki would have wept as she recalled her missing father, but for the simple fact that she had to conserve every bit of water still remaining within her body. The sun set outside the window of her desert prison on was the third day of her second consecutive week without water. She was weak. More weak than she'd ever felt before, and she did not relish the feeling of being unable to do anything. She sighed unhappily. Was her magic power really that important, that a desert demon had felt obliged to take her prisoner?

No one was going to come and rescue her, of that Mizuki was sure. She had no family, after all, and would very likely die in this miserable cell if she did not take action. With no friends or allies of any sort, Mizuki knew she must do something.. However, and most infuriating of all, she couldn't take action, weak as she was. And she would remain weak, at least until she had something to drink. And she would never get something to drink unless she escaped from the wretched clutches of the desert demon, Sabakkuma.

Wrapping her shabby cloak around her in a vain attempt to prevent the chill of the desert night air from reaching her very bones, Mizuki curled up in the corner of her cell that was closest to the barred window. Soon Sabakkuma would be awakening for the night, and soon would fly off to find more prey like Mizuki to drain the magic power from.

During her imprisonment, Mizuki had seen several other mages come and waste away to mere skeletons. For some it took a matter of hours for the demon to suck their magical energy away, for others it took as much as an entire day, but none had ever lasted as long as Mizuki. Again she wondered, why was the demon taking so long to kill her? Was she really that powerful? Or was she merely too weak for Sabakkuma to even bother with draining her power?

She gazed out of the window becoming slightly more alert when she heard the powerful rumble of thunder. However, Mizuki did not allow herself to even hope for a rainstorm. Ten long, dry days had taught Mizuki that even if she could hear the thunder and see the lightning, storms rarely came to the desert, preferring to pass over without leaving so much as a single drop of precious water.

She jumped as, suddenly, a huge flash of lightning descended just outside the barred window, accompanied by the familiar resounding crack. Even in her exhausted and water-deprived condition, Mizuki could sense that something made this lightning bolt different from all the others she'd seen. This lightning belonged to a mage, just like her. Another mage who had foolishly come to Sabakkuma's desert to challenge the demon. Another foolish mage who would end up as Sabakkuma's next meal.

Still, though, there was a small part of Mizuki that remained unreasonably hopeful and optimistic, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and she struggled to her feet in order to look out through the iron bars and to the impending battle outside.

"It looks as though the rumours were true." Another unnatural flash of lightning illuminated the dusky scene below. Mizuki saw the horrible hulking figure of the desert demon, its horns and scales shining in the moment of light. His opponent was the man who had spoken. His face was partially obscured by the hood he wore, but Mizuki could just make out a disappointed frown, and his careless but still somewhat crestfallen posture. "But I was expecting something a little more intimidating for five million Jewel. Ah well, I suppose. Beggars can't be choosers."

The mage cast his traveling bag aside, and lowered his hood. Another flash of lightning illuminated his features: his slightly unkempt spiky blond hair, his somewhat prominent nose, his set eyebrows, the spiked earphones attached to a magic music pod, and the lightning-shaped scar over his right eye. "Well then," he said, not even bothering to take his earphones off, "This is the part where I kill you."

Sabakkuma roared so loudly that the whole prison shook and vibrated just from the noise. Mizuki would have shrieked, but for the fact that her voice seemed to have stopped working after the third day without water.

The blond mage laughed contemptuously. "That's it? Hell, even Natsu was more intimidating than you."

Mizuki's eyes widened. How could this mage speak so contemptuously of the demon that had drained thousands of others of their magical power? Killed so many, who had, just like this mage, come to the desert to challenge it?

The mage's body began to crackle with electricity, glowing with the same yellow light as the lightning from before. "Now please don't cause me any trouble and die nice and easy, eh?" He laughed again. "Not that you'll have too much choice in the matter." The light surrounding the mage became brighter and brighter, until Mizuki was forced to look away, the acrid scent of electricity burning her nose.

Mizuki didn't see what happened, but she heard the anguished, tortured roars of the demon, and smelled the stench of burning flesh. When the light cleared enough, all that remained of Sabakkuma was a pile of quietly smoking bones.

Too exhausted to call to the victorious mage, Mizuki could only collapse, relieved but still troubled by the question of how to escape. Her vision blurred, and silently, she cursed herself. Of all the times to run out of strength! Right when she was about to be free! Mizuki felt her whole body grow numb, and gradually, she became unable to see the continuing flashes of lightning outside the window.

_Am I dying?_ She wondered as, one by one, the stars in the sky above were blotted out.


	3. Chapter 3

"Oi, are you still alive, kid?" Mizuki's eyes snapped open. Sunlight streamed through the barred window of her cell, illuminating the dust motes floating in the air above her. "I guess so."

Mizuki looked for the owner of the voice, and saw the blond mage who had defeated Sabakkuma so easily. The mage with the lightning-shaped scar over his right eye. "Here. Drink some more water."

The mage offered Mizuki a canteen that appeared to be about half-filled with water. With a great effort, she sat up, propping herself up on the filthy wall of the cell. With her hands shaking weakly, she took the canteen gratefully and drank deeply.

After she had finished, she coughed for several minutes, trying to clear her throat of the accumulated dust and sand that ten days in the desert had given her.

"Are you all right? How long have you been here?" The mage asked. Mizuki coughed again before answering, her voice hoarse from disuse.

"I think I'll live. I was here for-" she coughed again. "-Ten days."

"Ten days? That's odd. The clients in Onibas told me that the demon devours its victims within one day. Oh, I'm Laxus, by the way. What's your name?"

"Mizuki." said Mizuki, giving Laxus his canteen back. "Thank you for defeating Sabakkuma."

Laxus waved her thanks away. "I needed money, and they were offering five million Jewel. Lucky for me that they were so desperate that they were willing to employ a freelance mage. And lucky for you that I saw your face in the window last night or else you'd probably be dead right now."

Mizuki smiled tremblingly. She had almost forgotten how to smile in those ten days that she'd been imprisoned. "Thank you, Laxus."

Laxus shrugged carelessly. "It was nothing. I'll take you back to Onibas with me. You look like you could do with a trip to a hospital. Can you walk?"

Mizuki attempted to stand, but her legs felt like jelly and she collapsed on the floor again. She shook her head. "I don't think I can even stand up right now." She admitted.

Laxus nodded. "Ten days of imprisonment will do that. I guess that means that I have to carry you to Onibas, then. Come on."

He knelt down and picked Mizuki up, carrying her easily through the ruins of the prison and out into the blinding afternoon sunlight, pausing by Sabakkuma's remains.

"What is it?" Mizuki asked as Laxus put her down, and pulled out a wrapping cloth from his traveling bag.

"Demon bones fetch a good price at the apothecary's shop." He said, spreading the cloth out on the sand, and placing the bones on the cloth, one by one, before wrapping them securely and placing the bundle back in his bag.

"You left the skull." Mizuki noticed. "Why?"

"Demon's skulls tend to be cursed objects. I'm going to bury it out here, that way, hopefully, it won't be able to cause any more trouble for mages like you and me." Laxus reached again into his bag and this time, pulled out a faintly glowing miniature shovel. Mizuki watched in fascination as the shovel, released from its confinement, grew and grew until it was large enough for Laxus to use properly. "There we are. Hold on, this may take a few minutes."

In only a few minutes, Mizuki watched Laxus dig a hole, a good two metres in depth, wherein he dropped Sabakkuma's skull in, and then covered it in even less time than it took him to dig the hole. After he had finished, he paused again, then muttered something under his breath.

A huge bolt of lightning, even larger than the ones he'd used to fight Sabakkuma, fell from the cloudless blue sky, landing directly at Laxus' feet, and burying itself deep in the ground, leaving the sand scorched and blackened.

"What was that for?" Mizuki asked.

"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?" Laxus sighed. "That was just my way of making sure that that weakling demon doesn't forget who it was who killed it." He shrank the shovel down to its miniature size again, and put it back in his bag, picking it up. "Well, I suppose the easiest way to carry you all the way to Onibas is on my back. Hurry up."


	4. Chapter 4

"You're a very strong mage," Mizuki finally said, after a couple excruciatingly silent hours of Laxus walking, occasionally consulting a compass to check if he was headed in the right direction.

"I've been told that before, yes. What's your point?" Laxus sounded already bored with the subject.

"Why don't you belong to a guild?"

Laxus was silent for a long time before finally answering, "I did belong to a guild, once, but I don't really want to talk about it."

"Oh," Mizuki said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"Never mind. Anyway, are your parents in Onibas?" Laxus asked, glancing back at her out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't have any parents." Mizuki told him quietly. "That's something that I'd rather not talk about."

"Well, do you belong to a guild, then? You do have someplace to go back to, right?"

"No. I don't have anyone. That was why I had almost resigned myself to my fate when you showed up. Honestly, I didn't think that any mage could have ever subdued him."

Laxus chuckled. "Well, it hadn't met me yet. Plus I really need the money. I've been getting pretty low on food lately."

Mizuki smiled at his somewhat dry joke, and the two lapsed once again into silence.

Finally, still several hours before sunset, Laxus spotted something off in the distance. "I see an oasis. We're going to rest there until the sun goes down."

"Okay." Mizuki agreed. After all, it had been Laxus doing all the walking. He had every right to say when they were going to rest.

The oasis wasn't very large, indeed, it was only comprised of a single stone well, but it did have clean water and greenery the likes of which Mizuki had never seen.

After he had put Mizuki down, Laxus immediately collapsed in the shade of one of the curious-looking trees surrounding the well, living off of the underground water offered by the well.

"Can you walk yet?" Laxus asked her. Shakily, Mizuki stood up, and took a few tottering steps over to the well, where she was prompted to sit on the edge.

"I'll be fine after I have some more water." She told Laxus, and picked up the wooden bucket secured to a length of rope lying on the sand. Brushing most of the sand off of the bucket, Mizuki cast it into the well, catching the end of the rope as it threatened to fall into the well along with the bucket.

"While you're at it, why don't you refill my canteen?" Laxus opened his bag and searched for the now almost empty canteen of water. When he found it, he tossed it in Mizuki's direction. Reflexively, she caught it with one hand without flinching, seconds before it hit her in the face.

"Very well." She agreed, and, placing Laxus' canteen on the sand, drew up the cool, clear water from the depths of the well.

A few minutes later, Mizuki had satisfied herself and refilled the canteen that Laxus had tossed to her, along with her own canteen. Growing uncomfortable on the edge of the well, Mizuki went, her steps much less shaky now, to the peculiar tree that Laxus was sitting beneath, and sat next to him, handing him his canteen.

"Thank you." he said, tucking it back into his bag. "So, we seem to have an hour or two to kill. Tell me, why are you around Onibas if you don't belong to a guild and you don't have any parents living there?"

Mizuki shrugged. "Actually, my father did have something to do with it. He's been missing for years, you see. I've been looking for him."

"And you think he could be in Onibas?" Laxus asked.

"I don't really know. But I did hear a rumour that someone called Zmaj Zaliti with fantastic water magic was visiting there. I thought that it seemed possible enough that it could be my father, so I decided to see if it was."

"Zmaj Zaliti? I think I've heard that name, too. I think that the client who hired me to get rid of your demon mentioned something about having a party with that guy invited. so is that your dad's name or something?"

Mizuki smiled. "Nothing of the sort. My father's name is Nereusu. But before he vanished, he taught me many different languages, and the meaning of his own name. 'Nereusu' means 'water,' in one language, and 'zaliti' means 'water' in a different language."

"Hm." Laxus smiled, gazing thoughtfully out at the horizon.

"What is it?" Mizuki asked.

"Nothing much. You just sort of remind me of a kid I knew, back at my old guild. He's always looking for his missing father, too. A lot like what you're doing." He chuckled. "Although, Natsu sure isn't one to know many languages. In fact, I'm still not convinced he knows his own language all that well."

_Achoo!_ Natsu sneezed explosively, despite his queasy stomach.

"What's up, Natsu?" Happy asked, poking his motion-sick friend in the shoulder.

"Uuuuhhhggghh... probably just someone talking about my... blerrghhh... awesomeness..." Natsu finally managed.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Somehow I find that hard to believe."

Mizuki smiled, too, but Laxus wasn't finished.

"He's the kind of kid who really doesn't know when to quit. Always causing trouble for the Master... I wonder what they're all up to now. Hm." Laxus' smile vanished, replaced again by an expression of thoughtful melancholy. "No point in thinking about that."

Mizuki was quiet, too, thinking of Nereusu, the water dragon who had vanished seven years ago, on July 7th, X777. Since then, Mizuki had been trying to find him. She couldn't join a guild until she was certain that Nereusu was or wasn't dead. Finding out what had happened to him consumed her life, even as young as she was.

After all, her mother was now dead. She had to find Nereusu and bring him back to Castaway Island for Umiko-Hime's last rites.

The sun set, and finally, Laxus stood up and stretched. "Well, time to get going. You can walk now, right? I don't have to carry you any more?"

"Yes, I can walk on my own." Mizuki smiled, still feeling nostalgic with memories of Nereusu, as she copied Laxus' movements and picked up her canteen, securing the strap over her right shoulder.

"Hurry up, then." Laxus was already walking, much faster now that he didn't have to carry Mizuki anymore. The nostalgia fading, she grinned at Laxus' brusque manner and jogged a little to keep up with him.


End file.
